


Resounding Thunder

by Mertiya



Series: The Resounding Cycle [2]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Abuse, Reunion Sex, Reunions, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-01
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-02-19 12:55:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2388989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, there's no fairytale ending.</p><p>Sometimes, there is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resounding Thunder

            He likes Liliana.  She’s funny, quirky, and has an evil sense of humor that makes Jace laugh at anything and everything.  They grow closer. They date for a while, during his first semester, but it doesn’t really work out.  They break up, and Lili starts going out with a pretty Indian girl named Chandra.

            Jace studies.  Chemistry, physics, math, and computer science all beckon to him.  He even takes an engineering course for about two weeks before dropping it, after it turns out to be too hands’ on (and at eight am; Jace is _not_ a morning person). His life begins to unfold around him, a kind of quiet chaos.

            He makes more friends.  Lili drags all five of them—him, Chandra, Garruk, and Ajani—down to the nearby city to go clubbing at a place called _The Rough Crowd_.  Clubbing, Jace decides, wincing at the loud music, trying not to stare at the amount of flesh most of the other people are exposing, is not really his thing. He pulls his hoodie up and tells himself of course he isn’t hiding, watching the strobe-lit dance floor and the mass of writhing humanity packed within it.

            Chandra and Lili are dancing like dervishes, dark hair swirling about their shoulders like evening mist.  Garruk is chatting up a young man at the bar, while Ajani is talking to a shy-looking young woman with her hair pulled back in a braid.  Jace plays idly with the phone his grandmother gave him for his last birthday, swiping it open, locking it, swiping it open again.

            It vibrates underneath his hand, and he jumps in shock.  Text message from a number he doesn’t know. _Look behind you_.

            Well, that’s vaguely ominous.  Jace glances around in confusion, just as the lights flicker like a flash of lightning.  A moment of total darkness is followed by the illumination of a grinning face, and Jace just stares in disbelief.

            Ral Zarek slides into the seat beside him, looking extremely pleased with himself.

            “What,” says Jace intelligently.  Then, for good measure, he adds, “How?”

            Ral turns his phone around and slides it across the table to Jace. There’s a tumblr post on it, which has been reblogged over ten thousand times from the original poster, [prettygirlili.tumblr.com](mailto:prettygirlili@tumblr.com).  Jace glances across the dance-floor, to where Lili and Chandra are now grinding against each other.  Lili looks up, waves, raises her eyebrows.  Jace can feel that he’s smiling now, and she grabs Chandra’s arm and points. Chandra looks over as well, says something to Lili, and then puts her hands across her mouth, squealing.

            Ral’s hand slides across the table to Jace’s, almost tentative. “I was keeping an eye out, anyway,” he says offhandedly.  “Friend saw the post, I didn’t have anything better to do, so I hopped a plane down.” The gentle touch of his finger belies the flippancy in his words.  He gives Jace an insouciant grin.  “I booked a hotel room down the street, Beleren, if you’d care to accompany me.”

            “Uh,” says Jace, the word pulled out of his lips in disbelief. His entire world has shuddered on its axis, but—why the fuck not?  He’s still smiling, grinning really, as he takes Ral’s hand and nods, rapidly, silently.

            They’re out the door in seconds, and suddenly there’s rain water everywhere, the heaviest rainstorm Jace has seen in several months emptying all of its moisture at once down on their heads.  They run, hand in hand, down the lit streets, and Jace clutches at Ral’s hand, trying to memorize every tiny little groove and channel in it, as his hoodie grows heavier and heavier with water.

            He’s shivering and numb by the time they get to the cheap hotel that Ral booked at short notice, his teeth chattering in his head, but when they get into the elevator, and there’s no staring eyes anymore, it’s like a dam has burst. Jace launches himself at Ral, wraps his arms around the other man, practically trying to climb him like a tree. Lips clash on lips, and Ral’s surprised laughter vibrates through him.  They tumble out of the elevator, and Jace feels a sudden strange thrill at the thought that they’re safe, there’s no one here to catch them, to stop them, to send him—

            They fall against the door of Ral’s room—“if you can keep your pants on for another minute, I do have a key”—Ral scrabbles helplessly with the key-card for far too long as Jace’s impatient hands roam across his back and legs, but finally the door opens and they tumble inside, soaking wet and laughing.

            It’s actually Jace who reaches for Ral’s belt first, but Ral doesn’t appear in the least put-off, though he reaches clumsily between Jace’s legs, and Jace has to pause and stop and just feel because _oh god_ that feels so good.  Ral’s jeans are on the ground, and Jace pauses for a moment to wonder how they got there, but he’s kind of distracted by the sight of Ral’s skinny knees and his striped boxers.

            “Those are _ridiculous_ ,” Jace says with a laugh, but the laugh drops away as he grabs them and yanks them down as well and reached for Ral’s erection.

            Ral gasps and tumbles backward onto the bed.  “Condoms in the nightstand,” he moans, and Jace feels heat on his face but scrabbles in the direction Ral is indicating with a shaking finger, finds them, comes back again with feverish haste—and then everything slows to a halt as Ral reaches for the hem of his hoodie.

            Jace freezes, his hands halfway up his sides and shrinks back, tugging the material out of Ral’s hands.  Ral gives him a strange look.  “What’s up, Beleren?  It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

            But this is Ral.  If anybody deserves to see, it’s him.  Jace gives him a small smile and says, “It is, actually.”  Then he takes hold of the hem of his sopping wet hoody and the t-shirt beneath and strips them both off together.  He takes a deep breath and then turns his back, craning his neck so he can watch Ral’s face.

            Ral stares for a long moment, and Jace remembers how utterly naked he felt, spending those hours in the tattoo parlor, with no one there but Lili and the artist.  The artist hadn’t asked, and Jace hadn’t volunteered, the origin of the white scars that spiderwebbed across his whole back like a map.  He hadn’t spoken much at all, in fact, just enough to explain what he wanted done with them.  The process had taken longer than the initial injuries, but had been less painful.

            “So…” Ral says slowly, his face oddly blank.  “They didn’t just throw you out?”

            Jace shakes his head.  “Tezzeret,” he says, and a muscle twitches in Ral’s jaw.

            “Hm,” the other man says eventually, in a tone of voice that suggests he’s contemplating somebody’s murder.  He traces one finger down the longest of the scars, the one that follows Jace’s spine from the base of his skull to the top of his ribs, then moves off and slides down his side.  “Why lightning?” he asks.

            Jace can’t restrain his grin.  “You did say I was electrifying,” he reminds Ral.

            Ral kisses the scar, draws his lips down it, and Jace moans. “Mmm,” says Ral. “So I did.  And you know what?”  He pulls Jace close to him and nibbles gently at his ear. “I’m going to bang you so hard that sparks fly.”

~

            When Jace wakes up the next morning, it’s to discover that he’s entirely covered by his gangly, long-limbed lover.  Through the window, he can see that it has stopped raining. Clouds still cover the sky, but the sun is peeping through them, sending little watery rays of light slanting down to the earth below.

            Jace sighs and smiles and snuggles closer to Ral.  It’s a Saturday.  He doesn’t have anything pressing to do anyway.

           

          

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, okay, I'm incapable of leaving things sad if I can fix them. I hope this is a good trait, but I honestly don't know.


End file.
